Fears Raised That Killings Could Affect Ulster Truce

Similarities To Ira Punishment Murders Cited By Police Official

December 29, 1995|By New York Times News Service.

LONDON — The shooting death of a 30-year-old man in a Roman Catholic area of West Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Wednesday night is raising fears that the renewed use of deadly force could infect the 16-month IRA cease-fire.

Ian Williamson, the subdivisional police commander of the Woodbourne area, said Thursday the killing of Martin McCrory "fits into the pattern" of recent punishment murders widely attributed to the IRA. The death was thought by police to be the fourth vigilante slaying in four weeks.

McCrory, who was called a petty criminal in local press reports, was hit in the chest by a shotgun blast fired into his home. His 3-year-old son received slight injuries, and an 8-year-old child and McCrory's wife were unhurt.

The three earlier killings were claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself Direct Action Against Drugs.

The authorities believe it unlikely that such a group, which seems to have accurate intelligence, operational skills and hideaways to escape to, could function in Roman Catholic areas without at least being accepted by the Irish Republican Army, which has been fighting for 25 years to expel the British.

The IRA has a long tradition of meting out summary justice in areas where it is strong, since the predominantly Protestant police force, the Royal Ulster Constabulary, usually avoids these neighborhoods. Between Sept. 1, 1994, when the IRA cease-fire began, and Dec. 20 of this year, the police recorded 167 punishment beatings by the IRA.

In the same period there were 92 punishment beatings by Protestant gunmen in the loyalist paramilitaries, who did not declare a truce of their own until October.

Despite the resurgence of violence, most politicians -- other than Protestant unionists, who favor continued ties to Britain -- are reluctant to publicly condemn the killings as a breach of the cease-fire.

At a time when hopes for some sort of settlement of the 25 years of sectarian strife are still high among both Catholics and Protestants, no one wants to be responsible for dashing it.

Joe Hendron, a member of the British Parliament, said the evidence was overwhelming that "the IRA was directly responsible" for the recent killings or "arranged for some other republican paramilitary group to carry out the shootings."

Hendron is a member of the Social Democratic Labor Party, a moderate Catholic party.

He then added, "But I do not see this as being directly related to the cease-fire."

Like Hendron, many in authority accept the definition of the cease-fire as "a cessation of military activity" and so tend to regard the punishment actions as deplorable but not a reason for derailing the peace effort.

Nonetheless, the surge in violence is unsettling to many. "In everyone's mind is the thought: Could this be the start of a gradual unraveling?" said one commentator who follows the IRA closely.

"Four killings in four weeks -- we're getting to the stage where we have funerals on the TV screen again."

Sinn Fein and its president, Gerry Adams, who represent the political wing of the IRA, have not condemned the killings.